morey
Elite
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2013
- Posts
- 2,560
- Location
- Canada
- Society
- Freelancer
- Avatar Name
- Aurisk Morey Kenbi
Hello, I wanted to write a guide on how to properly run a shop in EU because I noticed many new shopowners end up failing. Which really sucks.
If you're a current shop owner or thinking of running a shop / changing up your shop theme, this is for you!
A. Selecting A Shop
B. Choose a Successful Shop Theme (I see most problems Here)
C. Supply and Keeping Stock
D. Shop Organization (Here)
E. Getting customers (And Here)
F. Improvements/Investments
A. Selecting A Shop
1. Apartment with Shopkeepers (taxed 2.5%, paid to MA): An apartment cannot act as a shop unless you place shopkeepers there. The apartments does sound attractive since it is cheaper, but running here also means you will not benefit from foot traffic, or from ads from other nearby stores. I will not recommend running stores in apartments.
2. Shop in a Mall (taxed 2.5%, paid to mall owner): This is the best choice for most owners as every active shop benefits each other.
Important Factors:
- Proximity to Teleporter or Televator. The closer the better, ofc price will go up too.
- Proximity to AH & other active stores. Active store traffic feeds off of each other. People will check out nearby locations. It's important to know what type of stores are around you and what they stock. This determines the majority type of players that walk by. Ex. If a whole floor is specifically hunting supplies and you run a single mining shop, it might be harder for you to succeed.
- Display Area item points: Item points in display helps people quickly glance what you are all about without walking in. This is helps covert foot traffic and helps new shoppers find you.
- Main Area item points: Where most of your stock will be. When a customer comes in, this is what they see.
3. Shop in a LA (taxed): These are usually owned by the LA owner as well. It's like a fancy apartment where LA owner get back the taxes anyways. Shops here should just mimic the theme of the LA.
B. Choose a Successful Shop Theme
Common Shop Themes: Each theme has a Low, Mid, High lv to stock for.
- Weapons (Melee, Energy, BLP, MF) & Weapon amps
- Armors and Armor plates
- FAPs & Regen chips: Not a good standalone theme, Best as an "extra" in a hunting shop
- Damage Enhancers
- Finders, Mining Amplifiers & Depth Enhancers
- Fashion: Run events to support this theme
- Hair Dresser/ Coloring: Run events to support this theme, also requires you to be online more often
- StrongBoxes, Pets, Skills: Best as an "extra" theme in a shop
- General Shops: Don't run these, they actually do more harm than good... unless your shop has LOTS of ip and you have a tonne of stock
- Specialty UL/Rare items: Good for a trader if you deal in uncommon/rare items
To run a successful shop, it is super important to the see the other shops beside you. What you want to do is find something the people coming here would like, but isn't currently stocked, or not stocked well enough, or priced funny.
1. Isn't currently stocked: If an area attracts mid-lv players, and you notice people don't have full sets of that lv range items stocked, it's your opportunity to go in
2. Not stocked well enough: Sometimes shop owners might be "semi active" ingame. So their stock keep running out. In this case, it makes sense to stock the exact same thing.
3. Priced Funny: If a store is stocked too high or even too low of a price you have an opportunity. Too low means they probably run out of stock all the time and thus you can go in and set the same items a little higher. If it's too high, just make the prices reasonable (usually 1-2% lower than AH is a good benchmark).
C. Supply and Keeping Stock
There are 2 main ways to stock your items
1. Craft/Mine/Hunt yourself: Works well if you have the right BPs, Skills, and knowledge of areas. Selling your loot in shops can make more money than AH because of the lower listing fee.
2. Buy in bulk from others: You can buy in bulk for a heavily reduced price. Some things like L MF chips are usually TTed, so 101% bulk buy is attractive. Lookout for grinders, skilling crafters, etc. It's all about network here
I kept around 5-10 copies of each item stocked at any given time. So note the ped locked up in stock. If it's not moving out, consider changing some items, price adjustment, etc. Best way to find out problems is literally asking people for their opinions (getting feedback can solve any other issue ingame or IRL tbh).
Be mindful of your Item points. If you only have 40, you'll have to be very specific with your supply. If you have more, you can be more general.
D. Shop Organization
This will also make or break your shops. I see a lot of new owners like to add random decorations and all that. It's cool, but the major question you need ask yourself is "Are my items easy for my customers to find?"; those decorative stores are usually organized unintuitively, which turns people off.
I like to use signs to help organize my shops. Most owners organize by Level and/or Type of Item. Shopkeepers are also a great way to organize your stock. One idea is to let shopkeepers hold specific items and stock only related items in them. Make shopkeepers hold/wear the items they contain along with signs (ex, blp weapon to show they sell blp, finder to show they sell mining supplies, etc. Then add a sign to specifically say what they hold "blp amps lv 10-40", "Laser weapons lv 50-90", "Lv 5, 7 & D-class amps", etc)
This is an old store of mine. It had 250 IP, so I was able to stock lots of different things.
Make sure your Store Front showcases exactly what's in your store clearly
E. Getting customers
1. Ingame Ads: I think this is undervalued. Put in some ped for a month, let the game advertise for you 24/7. If you are in a smaller planet, the smallest Ad fee will guarentee you being up top. I used to run ads in Rocktropia for 30ped a whole month. I'm the only one there, so it was a lot of result for a little investment. In Caly you probably need around 100-200ped a month to have any significant impact. So choose and price accordingly.
2. Word of Mouth: If you set your prices fair, start building your own reputation. People will share good news to their soc and friends especially if you have that gun they always use at the best price [It's super easy to beat AH prices as a store]. People care about how consistent you are, how you price, what you stock.
3. Self Advertising: Definitely create a message for the trade channels and maybe stand awhile in Twin Peaks, PA, or wherever your customers might be.
4. 3rd party tools/services: If you want to be abit creative, there are Radio ads, hire other Entropians to ad for you, online directories, and even streamers who are willing to help you out.
5. Post on PCF: While you are here, make a page for your shop! About 20% of users from Entropia use PCF (mostly the higher end players). So, make a post and get your shop additional traffic. People also use this to check which shops are currently active and gets restocked. So updating frequently with a simple "restocked!" or something like that is helpful at the beginning. When you are seasoned and have to restock a few times a day, you know you are well known.
F. Improvements/Investments
1. Have shopkeepers (0.1 ped decay/purchase): They effectively give you 14 more IP for your store, which is fast and easy.
2. Pay MA 2k PED for 20 IP upgrade (no decay)by sending them a support ticket asking for the IP improvement. The best place to upgrade first is the Display Area Item points if you don't have any. Then the main area. After you pay MA, they will implement in the next Version Update.
How do you know when it's time to upgrade? If you have a store that's doing well, and you want to expand .
I hope this helps. P.s. My old store was not the most organized. I'll get better photos of other's stores sometime later. Or you could send me yours and I'll put it here if it's good
Thank you for reading!
~Morey
Currently Running Medusa Mall
If you're a current shop owner or thinking of running a shop / changing up your shop theme, this is for you!
A. Selecting A Shop
B. Choose a Successful Shop Theme (I see most problems Here)
C. Supply and Keeping Stock
D. Shop Organization (Here)
E. Getting customers (And Here)
F. Improvements/Investments
A good selling shop is a win/win for the shop owner and also for the buyer
- Cause its always cheaper than auction
- Availablility
- Buyer can compare better
- Smaller stacks at low prices
A. Selecting A Shop
1. Apartment with Shopkeepers (taxed 2.5%, paid to MA): An apartment cannot act as a shop unless you place shopkeepers there. The apartments does sound attractive since it is cheaper, but running here also means you will not benefit from foot traffic, or from ads from other nearby stores. I will not recommend running stores in apartments.
2. Shop in a Mall (taxed 2.5%, paid to mall owner): This is the best choice for most owners as every active shop benefits each other.
Important Factors:
- Proximity to Teleporter or Televator. The closer the better, ofc price will go up too.
- Proximity to AH & other active stores. Active store traffic feeds off of each other. People will check out nearby locations. It's important to know what type of stores are around you and what they stock. This determines the majority type of players that walk by. Ex. If a whole floor is specifically hunting supplies and you run a single mining shop, it might be harder for you to succeed.
- Display Area item points: Item points in display helps people quickly glance what you are all about without walking in. This is helps covert foot traffic and helps new shoppers find you.
- Main Area item points: Where most of your stock will be. When a customer comes in, this is what they see.
3. Shop in a LA (taxed): These are usually owned by the LA owner as well. It's like a fancy apartment where LA owner get back the taxes anyways. Shops here should just mimic the theme of the LA.
B. Choose a Successful Shop Theme
Common Shop Themes: Each theme has a Low, Mid, High lv to stock for.
- Weapons (Melee, Energy, BLP, MF) & Weapon amps
- Armors and Armor plates
- FAPs & Regen chips: Not a good standalone theme, Best as an "extra" in a hunting shop
- Damage Enhancers
- Finders, Mining Amplifiers & Depth Enhancers
- Fashion: Run events to support this theme
- Hair Dresser/ Coloring: Run events to support this theme, also requires you to be online more often
- StrongBoxes, Pets, Skills: Best as an "extra" theme in a shop
- General Shops: Don't run these, they actually do more harm than good... unless your shop has LOTS of ip and you have a tonne of stock
- Specialty UL/Rare items: Good for a trader if you deal in uncommon/rare items
To run a successful shop, it is super important to the see the other shops beside you. What you want to do is find something the people coming here would like, but isn't currently stocked, or not stocked well enough, or priced funny.
1. Isn't currently stocked: If an area attracts mid-lv players, and you notice people don't have full sets of that lv range items stocked, it's your opportunity to go in
2. Not stocked well enough: Sometimes shop owners might be "semi active" ingame. So their stock keep running out. In this case, it makes sense to stock the exact same thing.
3. Priced Funny: If a store is stocked too high or even too low of a price you have an opportunity. Too low means they probably run out of stock all the time and thus you can go in and set the same items a little higher. If it's too high, just make the prices reasonable (usually 1-2% lower than AH is a good benchmark).
C. Supply and Keeping Stock
There are 2 main ways to stock your items
1. Craft/Mine/Hunt yourself: Works well if you have the right BPs, Skills, and knowledge of areas. Selling your loot in shops can make more money than AH because of the lower listing fee.
2. Buy in bulk from others: You can buy in bulk for a heavily reduced price. Some things like L MF chips are usually TTed, so 101% bulk buy is attractive. Lookout for grinders, skilling crafters, etc. It's all about network here
I kept around 5-10 copies of each item stocked at any given time. So note the ped locked up in stock. If it's not moving out, consider changing some items, price adjustment, etc. Best way to find out problems is literally asking people for their opinions (getting feedback can solve any other issue ingame or IRL tbh).
Be mindful of your Item points. If you only have 40, you'll have to be very specific with your supply. If you have more, you can be more general.
D. Shop Organization
This will also make or break your shops. I see a lot of new owners like to add random decorations and all that. It's cool, but the major question you need ask yourself is "Are my items easy for my customers to find?"; those decorative stores are usually organized unintuitively, which turns people off.
I like to use signs to help organize my shops. Most owners organize by Level and/or Type of Item. Shopkeepers are also a great way to organize your stock. One idea is to let shopkeepers hold specific items and stock only related items in them. Make shopkeepers hold/wear the items they contain along with signs (ex, blp weapon to show they sell blp, finder to show they sell mining supplies, etc. Then add a sign to specifically say what they hold "blp amps lv 10-40", "Laser weapons lv 50-90", "Lv 5, 7 & D-class amps", etc)
This is an old store of mine. It had 250 IP, so I was able to stock lots of different things.
Make sure your Store Front showcases exactly what's in your store clearly
E. Getting customers
1. Ingame Ads: I think this is undervalued. Put in some ped for a month, let the game advertise for you 24/7. If you are in a smaller planet, the smallest Ad fee will guarentee you being up top. I used to run ads in Rocktropia for 30ped a whole month. I'm the only one there, so it was a lot of result for a little investment. In Caly you probably need around 100-200ped a month to have any significant impact. So choose and price accordingly.
2. Word of Mouth: If you set your prices fair, start building your own reputation. People will share good news to their soc and friends especially if you have that gun they always use at the best price [It's super easy to beat AH prices as a store]. People care about how consistent you are, how you price, what you stock.
3. Self Advertising: Definitely create a message for the trade channels and maybe stand awhile in Twin Peaks, PA, or wherever your customers might be.
4. 3rd party tools/services: If you want to be abit creative, there are Radio ads, hire other Entropians to ad for you, online directories, and even streamers who are willing to help you out.
5. Post on PCF: While you are here, make a page for your shop! About 20% of users from Entropia use PCF (mostly the higher end players). So, make a post and get your shop additional traffic. People also use this to check which shops are currently active and gets restocked. So updating frequently with a simple "restocked!" or something like that is helpful at the beginning. When you are seasoned and have to restock a few times a day, you know you are well known.
F. Improvements/Investments
1. Have shopkeepers (0.1 ped decay/purchase): They effectively give you 14 more IP for your store, which is fast and easy.
2. Pay MA 2k PED for 20 IP upgrade (no decay)by sending them a support ticket asking for the IP improvement. The best place to upgrade first is the Display Area Item points if you don't have any. Then the main area. After you pay MA, they will implement in the next Version Update.
How do you know when it's time to upgrade? If you have a store that's doing well, and you want to expand .
I hope this helps. P.s. My old store was not the most organized. I'll get better photos of other's stores sometime later. Or you could send me yours and I'll put it here if it's good
Thank you for reading!
~Morey
Currently Running Medusa Mall
Last edited: